If the Shadow Accord was a cold-blooded textbook, then the dossier fragment in my hand was more like a black fairytale chewed up by a dog.
I found it the next morning — in the safehouse bathroom.Don't ask me why. Apparently someone thought a toilet tank was safer than a vault. I lifted the lid, and there it was: damp and pathetic, lying there like it had just gone through waterboarding.
"So the great truth of the world comes flushed out of a toilet?" I pinched the corner of the page and pulled it free, muttering to myself, "History will remember this: an agent discovers world-saving intel while taking a dump."
Erin shot me a disgusted look. "Do you have to describe everything like that?"
"Sorry, survival instinct," I said, unfolding the soggy page.
Scrawled lines stretched across the paper, like they'd been ripped from a larger file:
— File Number: Δ-13Subject: Hypothesis regarding the Nightmare KeyRecord: The Bureau suspects certain individuals can resonate uniquely with Nightmare energy, serving as a 'conduit.'Note: If confirmed, they must be secured as a priority, to prevent capture by hostile organizations.
I stared silently at those words: Nightmare Key.
Erin whispered, "…Sounds like it's talking about you."
"Wow, thanks. Finally someone admits I'm special," I said with a dry laugh, scratching my head. "Though I was hoping for the title 'eccentric, unlucky agent,' not 'cosmic magic doorstop.'"
The lower half of the fragment was water-blurred, but a few words bled through: failed experiments, a friend's cost, the Lost City.
My curiosity spiked. "Perfect. Now it's a jigsaw puzzle too. The Bureau really doesn't care if people lose their minds."
"This isn't a joke." Erin's hand pressed firmly on my shoulder. "If you really are the 'key,' sooner or later they'll treat you as an asset, not a person."
"Relax." I shook the soggy paper. "As long as I can still crack jokes, I'm human. Assets don't come with this much sarcasm."
Just as we were about to dry the fragment, a sharp click echoed outside — the sound of a camera shutter.
Erin yanked open the curtain. A drone buzzed past the window, fading into the distance.
"See?" I shrugged. "Our enemies are way more diligent than the files hiding in toilets."
The fragment weighed heavy in my hands, a damp prophecy pressed into paper.
Nightmare Key — it sounded like some grand destiny.But to me, it felt more like a chain, ready to drag me into the abyss at any moment.
Still, now that I had this cursed scrap, what else could I do?Keep moving forward, solve cases, and hope I don't get flushed away with the evidence.